American literature -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals
243
The Camp on March. 249
A Halt for Supper. 250
The Barge. 250
Captain Cairn's House. 253
The Death Mask of Edwin Booth. 267
"I Ain't No Missionary!" 269
"Excellent Claret," Said Harry. 271
"No Violence, Jim!" 272
"What Is Your Annual Income as a Burglar?" 273
REAL CONVERSATIONS.--II.
A DIALOGUE BETWEEN EUGENE FIELD AND HAMLIN GARLAND.
RECORDED BY HAMLIN GARLAND.
One afternoon quite recently two men sat in an attic study in one of
the most interesting homes in the city of Chicago. A home that was a
museum of old books, rare books, Indian relics, dramatic souvenirs and
bric-a-brac indescribable, but each piece with a history.
[Illustration]
It was a beautiful June day, and the study window looked out upon a
lawn of large trees where children were rioting. It was a part of
Chicago which the traveler never sees, green and restful and
dignified, the lake not far off.
The host was a tall, thin-haired man with a New England face of
the Scotch type, rugged, smoothly shaven, and generally very
solemn--suspiciously solemn in expression. His infrequent smile
curled his wide, expressive mouth in fantastic grimaces which seemed
not to affect the steady gravity of the blue-gray eyes. He was
stripped to his shirt-sleeves and sat with feet on a small stand. He
chewed reflectively upon a cigar during the opening of the talk.
His voice was deep but rather dry in quality.
The other man was a rather heavily built man with brown hair and beard
cut rather close. He listened, mainly, going off into gusts of
laughter occasionally as the other man gave a quaint turn to some very
frank phrase. The tall host was Eugene Field, the interviewer a
Western writer by the name of Garland.
"Well now, brother Field," said Garland, interrupting his host as he
was about to open another case of rare books. "You remember I'm to
interview you to-day."
Field scowled savagely.
"O say, Garland, can't we put that thing off?"
"No. Must be did," replied his friend decisively. "Now there are two
ways to do this thing. We can be as literary and as deliciously select
in our dialogue as Mr. Howells and Professor Boyesen were, or we can
be wild and woolly. How would it do to be as wild and woolly as those
Eastern fellers expect us to be?"
"All right," said Field, taking his seat well upon the small of his
back. "What does it all mean anyway? What you goin' to do?"
"I'm goin' to take notes while we talk, and I'm goin' to put this
thing down pretty close to the fact, now, you bet," said Garland,
sharpening a pencil.
"Where you wan'to begin?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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